“Ah, M-Manager!”
“Good to see you. It’s been over a week, so it’s been quite some time, hasn’t it?”
“I suppose so…!”
Batori had suddenly texted me asking to meet, and since I had roughly finished the paperwork related to Saran, I told the team leader I was heading out for work and came to meet her like this.
The place was the quiet café where we had met last time.
I ordered the same thing again and sat down across from her.
“Your face seems much brighter than before? You look really good. Did something good happen?”
“Ah! W-well… This time, I rose from 999th to 444th place…!”
“…Really?”
“Yes!”
…I was a bit surprised by Batori, who was speaking with an incredibly bright smile.
Well, of course—her rank had risen tremendously.
The fact that she had climbed 555 spots was something even I, who had met quite a lot of heroes, couldn’t help but be surprised by.
I had often heard from her lately that she was working hard as a hero.
Whenever she was bored, she would spam me with texts about subduing criminals who were robbing convenience stores, PC bangs, or some other place, essentially begging for unlimited praise, so I had thought she was doing well.
In just over a week.
The first time I met her, I had only given her a bit of confidence through hypnosis, yet she had risen over 500 ranks….
“That’s amazing.”
“R-really…?”
“Yes, it’s really amazing. Honestly, I was surprised too. Even if you received a bit of treatment, entering the E-Rank top 400 is truly something worth celebrating.”
“Heh… hehe… hi, hih….”
I was genuinely surprised, and I was genuinely praising her.
Although E-Rank included nearly 1,500 heroes, with the absolute majority of lower-ranking heroes, and E-Rank 400th itself could be said to be socially insignificant.
Even so, it was hard to deny her efforts.
Generally, it wasn’t common for a hero at the very bottom of E-Rank to leap to the upper ranks, or for a debuted hero to raise their ranking in an instant.
As one of the association’s employees, I was in an environment where I knew that better than anyone.
At this pace… I had even thought that she might become a D-Rank hero within a month.
“How did you do it? The texts you sent me were just about taking down a few criminals, like one per day, right?”
In reality, Batori had sent me several messages a day.
In the process, she would send me photos one by one of her achievements—criminals knocked out or tied up somewhere that she had subdued.
She pretty much sent at least one every day without fail, which was exactly why her tremendous rise in rank felt all the more amazing to me.
Did catching one criminal a day make her go from 999th to 444th?
Unless there were truly dangerous criminals among them, or she had preemptively resolved incidents that could have destroyed half the neighborhood, wouldn’t that be difficult?
“Ah, th-that’s….”
At my question, Batori began watching my reaction extremely carefully.
I was sure I had given her quite a bit of confidence through hypnosis, yet seeing her still act this way, maybe it was just her nature.
Who knows.
For now, Batori’s situation was so fascinating that it didn’t bother me much.
“Actually, what I sent you was just a small portion. In truth, I caught about four criminals on the street per day….”
“…Four times a day?”
“Yes… hehe, w-well… I actually tried to do just one a day, but it was much… easier than I thought…? Much easier than before…! So I just, I tried it and….”
“And?”
“…They ended up in a condition where I absolutely couldn’t send you photos of the subdued targets by text.”
“…….”
“So I just… I only sent you the ones that photographed well……”
Hmm.
If she resolved four incidents a day, and did that every day for over a week.
Even with a simple calculation… that meant over 30 criminal subjugations, and if she had subdued them so overwhelmingly that high evaluations were unavoidable….
“…I see.”
“Ehehe….”
Hmm.
The conclusion was that it made sense.
She was still merely E-Rank, not D or C-Rank yet.
Though it was a rather surprising result, it was also a natural one.
“Congratulations. I can’t help but say it again.”
“It’s all thanks to you, Manager…! Ever since you helped me last time, my heart feels so much lighter… S-so, even when three or four people stare at me, I’m okay……”
“……What?”
Wait, hold on.
Three or four people?
Bragging that just a number under five was finally okay…?
“B-before, my hands would shake if there were more than two people…! Now I can even pay at a convenience store normally… heh… hehe……”
“…….”
My head suddenly started to ache.
No matter how introverted she was, how difficult she found it to interact with people, how low her self-esteem was….
I had hypnotized her.
It was the kind of hypnosis that greatly boosted her pride…?
But seriously… how was that all it did?
The gloomy girl sitting before me began to seem both pitiful and terrifying at the same time.
Just how much…….
“Sigh….”
“W-why are you sighing…!? Are you sick somewhere, or, uh….”
“…It’s nothing.”
It seemed….
“Anyway, congratulations again on 444th place. I’ll keep working hard to help you as your manager going forward.”
“Ah, th-tha, tha, thank you…! I-I look forwa— e-ack……”
“…….”
She was someone I would really have to keep managing continuously, just like Saran.
When I first heard she had reached 444th place, I had honestly thought it would be fine to stop managing her, but seeing her now… if I did that, it really wouldn’t be okay.
“Batori, is it okay if I touch your horns?”
“Huh? Uh… sure? Since it’s you, Manager…! Hehe….”
“…….”
Truthfully, I had finished all the stories we needed to share, and I had said everything I needed to say to her, so I was in a position where I should be getting up and returning to the company about now.
I decided to spend more time with Batori just to goof off on company time.
It wasn’t like I had work waiting for me anyway.
Wasn’t this a rare opportunity to spend time touching a goblin’s horns?
I didn’t want to give that up just to go back to the office and exchange lame jokes with my dirt-like team leader.
“Batori, but….”
“Yes?”
“……Hmm. It’s nothing.”
I left the café with Batori.
And while walking down the street with Batori standing beside me, something… somewhere… just a little…?
“…….”
Why did it feel like she was taller than before?
Of course, since she was still much shorter than me, it wasn’t a big deal, but it really did seem like she had grown just a tiny bit, which was both puzzling and fascinating.
Well, she was a twenty-year-old girl a year younger than me.
Maybe her growth plates had still been slightly open, allowing her to grow taller.
I didn’t pay too much attention to it.
No matter what, she was still shorter than me!
“Hehe….”
“What is it…?”
“Nothing? Walking like this with Batori puts me in a great mood.”
“R-really…? I-I… like it too……”
There really weren’t many adults shorter than me.
Even by late middle school, girls were usually done growing first.
Walking around with Batori, who was truly shorter than me by nearly 10 centimeters, inevitably put me in a good mood!
I am tall.
Though below average, people even shorter than below-average exist!
Feeling a slight sense of superiority and exhilaration without realizing it made me want to live a 180cm life all over again, but….
Even this inevitably vanished like a midsummer night’s dream.
“Uu, uuu….”
“…What’s wrong?”
“…There are too many people….”
“…….”
…The moment we entered a somewhat crowded street, I had to take care of Batori, whose anthropophobia had kicked in.
So when she said earlier that she could only endure about four people’s gazes.
She was serious…?
“Then shall we just go somewhere quiet?”
“Yes….”
“By the way, Batori, what do you like? Games… reading? Or singing? Please tell me.”
…I had originally planned to keep walking around outside.
I had planned to keep strolling around.
I couldn’t ignore Batori trembling beside me just from walking down a street that was merely a bit crowded….
“Normally I just, uh, stay at home…”
“Aha….”
…So she was a homebody, a shut-in, a hikikomori, a reclusive loner too.
It was starting to feel somewhat familiar.
Since she was genuinely terrified of mingling with people, it was hard to force her to do anything.
From the start, the fact that she was working hard as a hero despite that was praiseworthy in itself.
Besides, in Saran’s case, she simply didn’t go outside.
In Batori’s case, she couldn’t.
I gently patted Batori’s back to calm her down, and in the process, I began wondering where we should go to kill time on the company dime.
Somewhere we could spend time comfortably and have fun… while also not needing to run into people….
A PC bang would probably be too noisy for her to like, and a karaoke room… I didn’t think Batori had the self-esteem to sing…….
I had a feeling she spent every day at home watching videos or manga on TV or her phone, just like Saran….
“…Ah. How about we go to a manga café?”
The perfect idea that flashed through my mind in an instant.
It was such a great option that I wanted to applaud myself even as I said it.
An option that Batori would absolutely never hate.
“…A manga café?”
“Yes, a manga café. A place where we can take a small room and spend time reading manga comfortably.”
“Oh, wow….”
It was such a perfect choice that even the goblin, who had been trembling just seconds ago, opened her mouth slightly in anticipation.
I honestly felt like crying because I was so amazing.
Though it seemed like tears were about to come out for a different reason too…?